Bank official gets 75 months

Roberta Stutzman, former loan officer, stole $4 million from Penn National Bank.

July 19, 2010|By Matt Birkbeck, OF THE MORNING CALL

A former loan officer at a Boyertown bank who stole millions and went on a decade-long spending spree was sentenced to 75 months in federal prison.

Roberta Stutzman, 62, of Boyertown, also last week was ordered by U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky to pay $4.9 million restitution.

Stutzman pleaded guilty in March to bank fraud, bank embezzlement and tax fraud for taking Penn National Bank's money from 1996 through 2008.

An assistant vice president of loan accounts, Stutzman had access to the bank's computer system and created two fictitious accounts and two lines of credit for herself and her husband, prosecutors said. She withdrew money from the accounts and erased accrued interest on the credit lines. During one year, 2007, Stutzman stole $719,571.

Prosecutors said Stutzman used the money to buy jewelry, cars, snowmobiles, flat-screen televisions, vacation homes and to pay credit card and mortgage debt. In June, authorities served search warrants in Pennsylvania and Idaho and seized seven automobiles, including three BMW's and a Hummer, three homes, one in Idaho, jewelry, furniture, a snowmobile and other items.

Stutzman, who started at the bank in 1981, was fired in December 2008 after officials learned of the theft. Bank officials alleged that when the fraud was discovered, Stutzman tried to destroy hundreds of pages of documents.